Thinking of you on the Saturday between.
For most of my life I spent Easter season writing, directing, or performing some kind of re-enactment of the events of the passion week. I think it's these many experiences that stir in my soul to an instinctive somber reflectiveness. Especially on the Saturday between Good Friday's memorial, and the celebration of Easter Sunday morning. What hopelessness must the disciples have felt when their Rabbi was dead?
This last month, I've been doing a new Bible Study with women in my church. It has me looking again at the power Satan and his hatred of us, the beloved children of God. His lies and seductions are tailor made for each of us to try to morally and spiritually ruin us and drive us away from the most important relationship we have: the eternal one, with our Creator and Savior. HIs aim is to steal our hope and make us give up on an absolute truth: The Almighty God wants us to be reconcilled to a relationship with him.
So that's why I'm writing to you today. New friends and old friends who normally get eNews from us about ministry with CRM in Singapore. I feel compelled to write you today about something more personal:
On this Holy Saturday, if you are reading this and find yourself ensnared by some sin, don't despair. There is a way out and a way back to safety. Please stop hiding. Don't let fear of others opinions or pride keep you from coming back to Jesus and the help you need this Easter. Our enemy is a "roaring lion" seeking to devour us, but don't let him convince you that you are not loved, can't be forgiven, or will never conquer the sins that have ensnared you.
If you are a follower of Christ and have been holding grudges or have been judgemental of others who are caught in a life of sin, please stop it! Let God remind you of your own depravity and remember the grace shown to you, and then offer grace and help and forgiveness. Our Bibles tell us in the letter to the Galatians (Chapter 6)
"Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else."
I pray it's an Easter of hope for you. May you have an Easter that encourages and lifts you up to a focused future of spiritual health and healing with strengthened resolve and a supportive church and friends.
Blessing. Joy. Humility. Gratitude. Grace.
About the Photo above: This year the only drama I had a part of was with these 5 boys who came over Thursday evening to recreate the Last Supper. Before going upstairs to our apartment, we put these scarves on our heads and talked of the donkey and palms of the Sunday before, and how some of the disciples had gone ahead to prepare the meal and the room.
Outside my front door we washed their feet and then opened my door to a candle lit "upper room." The sounds of music from the Middle East were playing. On the dining table Bibles were opened to John chapter 13 where Jesus gave his last teaching to his friends. We ate (with our hands!) a Singaporean modification of the passover meal: Indian mutton murtabak, curry gravy, and Ribena, a blackcurrant cordial we pretended was their wine. I walked them through the story. When my boys were little we used to do it and invite some of their friends. This year, Cameron who's now 15 was my assistant; sort of.
Around a candle lit table their eyes grew wide and they sat very still while I talked about whatbetrayal and sacrifice was in little boy terms.
Even in their young "innocence" I could tell that they were getting it. In order to be friends with God, they need to put their trust in Jesus. He was our sacrifice and is our Savior. He was a substitute punishment for what we deserve. The 1st century guys in that room with Jesus didn't understand it then, but he proved he was the King of God's Kingdom, and deserves our loyalty and obedience...because on Sunday he came back to to life again!
When we were finished, we sang a hymn, and went out. Just like the disciples did on their way to the garden of Gethsemane, but we weren't going to see any drops of blood for sweat, or an arrest which included cutting off an ear and replacing it. Maybe we'll do that when they're teenagers.
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